Abstract
It has previously been shown that ether anesthesia in rats brings about a condition, demonstrable in brain tissue removed immediately after termination of one hour of deep surgical anesthesia, such that the rate of autoxidation of available carbohydrate and lactic acid in the surviving brain decreases more rapidly than is usual for tissues taken from untreated rats. 1 Since both the total carbohydrate and glycogen content of rat brain decreases in ether anesthesia 2 despite the marked hyperglycemia maintained at the same time, it was suggested that the inhibitory effect on rate of autoxidation was due simply to limiting of oxidizable carbohydrate in the excised tissue. The ability of such tissue to metabolize added glucose at a normal rate substantiates this.
Examination of data on blood and urine chemistry shows marked resemblance of biochemical effects of epinephrine and ether. The possibility that many of the physiological side actions of ether are mediated through stimulation of adrenin output is supported by the weight of much evidence, 3 and studies on intestinal chemistry 4 and ether ketosis 5 show marked parallelism of many effects of the 2 agents. Unequivocal direct evidence of the supposed action of ether on the suprarenals is as yet lacking. 6 The present communication is concerned with demonstrating whether'other narcotics having some sympathomimetic actions in the organism effect changes in rate of autoxidation of surviving brain tissues taken from anesthetized rats.
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